You may remember I bought a late Norman T300 at old sodbury sort-out. Having a day off work, I decided to investigate the 'disturbing tightness' I reported at the time.
Suffice it to say the RH cylinder had to be pulled off the piston by placing blocks of wood under the base flange end when it finally let go a pool of rusty water ran out! Should have guessed I suppose, The exhaust pipe was missing from that side leaving a nice open port pointing right at where rain comes from.
Even though very dry (of oil) bore looks ok, but rings were well stuck. I gave up being gentle with them when I noticed that the bottom scraper ring was already broken and the rest came out in 1/2" sections, apparently having been stuck in with white aluminium corrosion rather than the usual carbon (must have been dry!).
Once I could get the pots onto the bench the heads came off without any fuss, though the gaskets have seen better days. I think I mentioned that there was a broken head stud, fortunately once the head was off there was enough stud showing to grip in the vice and that too came out easily (well my luck had to change sometime!).
The bottom end and pistons are in fine condition with little sign of having done any work but the cylinders show some wear and are externally quite rusty. The guy I bought it from said he collected MK1's and I reckon he probably acquired this MK11 to provide replacement pots for an earlier engine, substituting the rather ragged examples it now wears. Was I done? No not really, hopefully I can get a ring set, gaskets and a few other odds and ends and I'll have a nice little engine.